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THE
LAST BLOOD
AKA:
12 Hours To Die ||
Hard Boiled 2 || Geng Tin Siu Shut
Year:
1991 Reviewer: Scott
Napier
Another
one of Wong Jing's many basic fast-paced actioners. Of course,
there won't be a hell of a lot to it but it certainly gets the
job done. At present, quite a few of his movies have been
disappointments for fans/critics. With a repetitive habit of
plotting movies around successful films and manipulating them
as spin-offs, he won't be too popular for this in particular.
Hopefully, he will start to improve again before retiring from
the industry. In the meantime, if you're not in favour of his
recent efforts, you're probably better off watching some of
his work from the 80s/90s' such as this one.
Wong
regardless, always blends in a form of amusement whilst
delivering a simple but often prominent and intriguing storyline
to accompany - another reason as to why I've grown fond of
his stuff. A wealth of high entertainment for the majority of
viewers to enjoy is also included to make up for anything else
that's underdeveloped, partially why some of his projects have
failed to churn out any success. Despite this and some of the
infamous real life stories about him, it's quite a rare
inspiration for HK Cinema to have such a talented and
legendary player in the industry, to which we probably won't
see a lot of in future.
Onto
'The Last Blood' - whilst it was frequently hailed as the
sequel to the classic 'Hard
Boiled' (especially in the UK),
the latter was made the year before and 'Boiled' would become
one of John Woo's most successful and critically acclaimed
films in his career amongst 'The
Killer' and 'A
Better Tomorrow'. As ever, Wong surfs through the years of his
celebrated career and rarely (if ever) has enforced a halt to
it, especially to direct this entertaining flick.
'The
Last Blood' definitely deserves the right to stand
on it's own. More attractively, it also broadcasts Alan Tam's
somewhat-hidden and rare role of a prominent action star than
what he's most know for, a Hong Kong Canto-pop singer! It's
less known that he initially filled in for Jackie in the 1987
film 'Armour of God' in result of the latter's major injury on
set, should he have taken a real turn for the worse...
During
the Gulf War, many terrorists are planning worldwide attacks
on political figures and leaders to abolish peace for all. One
gang of terrorists in particular: the Japanese 'Red Army' are
determined on planning the assassination of Daka Lama (Lo Sho
Kai). The latter, despite repetitive warnings over the major
threat of his life, insists his trip to 'Singapore' during the
'Nation Day' to broadcast his words to the people that his
country is suffering greatly from poverty.
Unfortunately,
Daka Lama is shot in the airport he arrived in and requires a
blood transfusion. During the process of capturing the
assassins, May (May Lo), another innocent civilian is taken
hostage and suffers the same fate. The blood they both require
is the same rare type with only three such men in the same
country carrying it. Two are assassinated leaving 'Fatty'
(Eric Tsang) the only donor available.
The
boyfriend of May; Bee (Andy Lau), becomes embroiled in a feud
with Interpol cop Lui Tai (Alan Tam) and his partner Stone
(Leung Kar Yan) over whom will receive the limited amount of
blood available. Both realize that rebellion of the two
parties is pointless and must work together in order to save
lives in and from danger.
For
a HK film, it's solid cast and action make this a recommended
purchase despite the minor flaws!
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